1453

Turtle poems
Soccer poems
Turtle poems
Soccer poems
Turtle poems
Turtle poems
Mean poems
Mean poems
Thug poems
Turtle poems
Mean poems
Soccer poems
I admire you for listening to all my problems poems
Monchi-chi

1452

POEMS ABOUT COLOR FOR THIRD GRADERS

The red ball floats on the green pond
Down the green hill from the red church.
The airplanes shine their white lights
On the black city. Orange lights shine
Back up at the purple night above.

1451

WHERE IS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL

Where indeed.
The hurricane has broken in two,
One part circling back
For something it left behind.
The meteor that gave us the gulf itself
May also have been a fragment.

1450

POEMS TO SAY THANK YOU TO A TEACHER

I looked forward
To hearing how you
Would help
Make me whole.

Collaboration will
Be the growth
Industry of
The millennium

Since no one knows
How to do it and there
Won't be any place
To go be alone.

Teachers either
Have a picture inside
Or the energy to keep
Going or maybe both.

1449

SWEET SIXTEEN

I can see why
If you wanted a poem now and then
The sixteenth birthday
Of a young woman
Would send you

Looking everywhere for some
Words to commemorate
The undiscussable
Blossom. Four or five times a week
Someone consults

The text I generate
Somewhere on the spectrum
Between cryptic and random
In the belief there might be
Some crystal form

Of the feeling
Of having cared for
Someone for what is after all
Four presidencies, and the acknowledgment
That while caring will continue

The independence that has
Been present the entire time
Is now undeniably in force.
That's gotta be bittersweet.
There ought to be poems about it.

1448

POEMSFORSOMEONEIJUSTMET.COM

When I think of all the domains
I let slip through my fingers
The one that hurts the most
Is fogdog.com. I was like,
Did we register all the short rhyming ones
Or did we max out the card
With a buttload of latinate four syllable names
Nobody's aunt-the-lifer-teacher would even search on?

Search on. Remember that?
Anyway, I met this chick, this lady,
And she was all like "Well,"
And I was "Hi." That's really almost always
The way to go, the lo-fi approach,
The, you know, just say "hi" and
If there's anything there it's there.

I mean, I've done the get-all-wild-eyed
And-tell-stories-about-Dokken-shows thing.

1447

LOOK FOR FOLLOW MY FOOTSTEPS

The fact of the footstep
Makes a graph in the look for
It's lockstep I'm follow
The matter of look like
I follow your footsteps
The waves make one look like
A fact of the graph I don't
Look like a fatstick
I paint with a migraine
And make up a baseline
To mock up a paint sickness
Like a look lucky lady listen
I don't like muck muck but
Facts are a lookalike
I dunk in the mockup
And wait in the basement
You court me with rice
And I follow your footsteps
You sing about Christ
And I knit up some bootstraps

1446

SOCCER AT RECESS

Light in August is basically
The light of April and May. It's
September, so the sunglasses
I lost one morning moving the car
In accordance with local regs
Were missed when I went out
For a slow walk on my lunch hour.

Third Avenue is melancholy
And beside the point. You can put
Plywood out in front of a building,
Let wheatpasters stick bills
With fashion designers blowing themselves
Away, and then lean against the side,
And pedestrians will just deal.

I used to like it here. General
Assembly time would bring out
Some spirited opposition to the state,
Making up for the loss of the farmer's
Market that week. But now, I'm
Using the "but now" construction
To see what kind of a curmudgeon I'd make.

Not much of one, actually. I'd rather
Be kicking around a number five
Soccer ball or elevating my heart rate
On a treadmill. Say, do you think
In his Marvell parody, J.A. puts
Soccer next to recess because
Those two words are almost the same?

1445

I MEAN POEMS

From Adelaide to Morgantown
They come looking for mean poems.

Poems to deflate a monster truck,
Poems that release little secrets
Like a thousand white mice
At the opening ceremonies of some Viciousness Olympics.

I mean poems.

I don't mean shticky insults
Compiled from a list of adjectives
Shakespeare or Captain Haddock likes.

Art relates the lived experience
That so often comes with feelings,
Thank God. Poems use only words.

Meanness, a rude complicity
With keeping life painful,
Is hard to live with in the day to day.
We know from passing cars
What mean people do.

It makes great theater, though.

A poem is a play you can take anywhere, is it?
What if it isn't. What if poems
Are like those organisms that ran the ocean
For millions of years, just a sheet of cells
A single cell thick.

What if the poetry world
Is basically a less popular version
Of boy scouting.

And poets just transcendence addicts,
As the magazine articles keep tsking.

This would be a mean poem, then.
A poem treating other poems badly,
Seemingly unaware of its tendency
To impute its qualities to others.

Just like everybody else.

You seekers of mean poems,
I hope you get the back rubs, orgasms, and windfalls
You clearly need.

As for me and my poems,
We refuse to stop being cheerful
Or to give up growing.

1444

THE MARBLE TYPEWRITER

Putting the magnet
Up to the hook, the parachute
Landing on the corner of the carpet

Four marbles lined up
Along the airplane's fuselage

Bits of crayon on the floor,
Empty ziploc

Chairs at right angles,
The easel out in the middle
Frayed purple workshirt
Draped over it

A half a saxophone
In the paint tray
With the chalk and
An inverted limousine

The turtle lying on its back
By the radiator
Is a kite

Chaos is hereditary

1443

POEM FOR TAKING CORPORATE INVENTORY, TAKE TWO

Why is capital scarce?

How does the connection between risk and reward
Differ from gambling?

When can we be social on your time?

Do you have faith in predictive psychology?

Why is poetry scarce?

If doing nothing is taking the biggest risk of all,
Won't it lead to the biggest reward?

How do you tell beliefs from knowledge?

When do I get one of those GameBoys I see y'all
Playing in meetings.

Can you get anything done with those headphones on?

Do you have dreams where your family's at the office?

Do you consider your goals to be aligned
With those of your customers and shareholders?

What's your favorite band?

1442

POEMS ABOUT ME

The poems I like
Tend to be about me.
They speak to my
Condition of being
Who I am, and how
I got to be this way.
Sometimes they're
Funny, but other
Times I could do
With a little more
Flattery. But after
All, it ought to be
Flattery enough
That the poems
Are about me,
Right? I suppose
I ought to ease up
A little, but it's
So difficult when
I can't get
Constant adulation
Beaming at me,
Keeping the lasers
From shooting
Out of me at
Innocent street
Lights. Bad
Lasers! No more
Oak bark
For your puckering
Flange until
You learn
How to be good
So that I don't need
To crush
Those thousands
Running around
Screaming in front
Of the blue screen.

1441

TAKING A CORPORATE INVENTORY b/w HOME AND THE WARMTH THAT IT HAS

Truly one of mankind's greatest achievements
Is to learn how to count.

Sometimes I wake up feeling like Tom Brokaw.

But other times, I don't feel much like him.

Many interesting sounds have come out of
Boxes of cereal. Many colorful pictures
Have been coated onto these boxes.

Often, a home will have many boxes of cereal.
Residences with diverse insect populations
May prefer to transfer the breakfast foods
From their elaborate packaging to plastic containers
Which are themselves marketed ingeniously.

In many cases, a home will be adequately heated,
And the younger people living there
Will feel simultaneously the pressure to enjoy cereal
And the demand that they learn to count.

Children are born in a state of grace
And should not be forced to acquire knowledge.
Children are born in a state of error
And cannot be expected to acquire knowledge.

There is no way that infant of mine
Is going to be forced to work.

There is no knowledge you can force me to have.

You can't make me let go
Of my need to stay out of smithies.

I am going to oppose you
Every step you take
Says the ground.

I am going to sit here and not eat this cereal.

I'm hungry.

1440

PABLO ESCOBAR SHOPPING T-SHIRT

What I didn't know when I put on my Tims
Was the groundhog was hiding from his creditors

All it took for that farmer to sell me on his zucchini bread
Was to exclaim in a stage voice how damn good it was

So I got out into this public space
Where I had no choice but to articulate

My varying resistance and acquiescence
To the alleged facts and context

As presented by an unseen voiceover
Whom I gathered wasn't going to be my friend

My beautiful land
Exploited endlessly
For establishing shots
Nobody saying two words
About the ritual slaying

The Republican headquarters
Next door to the $0.99 store

So what! is what politics
Wants us to grow into

It wants to protect us
From an even greater false feeling

1439

FEELING NUMB

Overrated, generally, though there are contexts...
Behind every great fortune there is a great context.

Tingling feelings' cousin.

The stereo sits waiting for me to light up its robot mouth.
I am surrounded by taxes and instances of future publication
I have yet to make actual. Four times today I played
A song about fear, does that make me too compulsive for you?

I passed the hamburger stand
With five dollars in my pocket.

I tested the limits of my vulnerability
Then decided to start loving

The light pummelling upward through the notch
Between the pencils and the throb

Of all these filthy meanings a mayor
Can't abandon simply by giving a film crew a permit

To the ramparts, he shouted like a child
And we admired his absolutist gusto

Until it was clear he was incapable of following orders
And moreover would not rest until we were dead

So we played canasta (yes, that's what we're calling it now)
And listened to our cell phones as our interlocutors witnessed

Free spirits lobbing
Kits at the standing water
I mean kites
At the breeze off
The long-turned tide,

There was much to feel
And yet we'd signed on
For too big a supply
Of these moods,

This legendary first person
We'd heard so much about.

1438

JAMIE LEE CURTIS LASAGNA DRUG

I don't know what that means
I don't know what that means
I don't know what that means
But somebody thinks I do.

The fact that the blues
Repeats a line twice makes me
Feel lonely.

Oh I said the fact that the blues
Insists on the repetition of its premise
Makes me lonely.

Well I wake up in the morning anyway,
Apparently knowing something about
The Jamie Lee Curtis Lasagna Drug.

1437

THE GIRL FROM POMERANIA

My friend, who is never seen
Except surrounded by several pomeranians.
No seriously, it's like "The Birds" --
They're not hers, and she's not
As far as anybody knows wearing pom pheromones.
They just show up when she goes out.

I suppose it helps that they're basically
Hypoallergenic and that everyone in her neighborhood
Goes for that. The uncanny thing
Is that she still gets excited
At each new sighting. Every new pomeranian
Is an opportunity for her to swoon. Up -- my bus. Got to run!

1436

BANK TELLERS

Here to be decent to the memory
Of poets wandering dizzy in the canyons
Of money I must eschew glibness
And put on this oblong slip of text field
Only my humble remand of time
To its original idea, which is
After all not so different from the sun

There are a few tellers who've given me warm feelings
But money is a magnet under the surface of the pinball machine
That sends anyone off in a predictable errant wilds

And bank tellers inhabit a warm cave
They don't blank out at the first sign of wishing

1435

PICTURES OF BUGS BUNNY DRESSED LIKE A THUG

What drove me to draw this picture
Of Bugs Bunny dressed like a thug?

Plural. Pictures. Not once did I sketch
The buff tattooed torso of Thug Bugs

But many times, over several days.
He looks mean, doesn't he? When the hell

Will this election be over
So I can get back to blowing off life

Without inadvertantly producing objects
Of great and mysterious-to-me beauty.

1434

ZEBRAS, GOOD MANNERS, AND BEACHES

When you visit Southern California,
Be kind to the people there,
And that includes you.

The water is cold. The zebras
Are donkeys with makeup.

When you live in Southern California,
Don't forget: there was a time
Before you were there, and
There will be a time after.

What does that mean?
I don't know, man.

1433

MISS YOU

One person can never
Keep awake under the pencil case
Of jade without a mission
To keep the stupidity
At a consistent density.

I wake up in the morning
Next to you and you
Ask me who I am.

Have a balloon full of food coloring?
Fling it at the tennis team
And marinate the steaks anon,
It is tantamount to reason, your
Blini hut bailout plan. I miss you.

1432

POSTED POEMS

Frosted poems
Blasted poems
Poems written after education
Poems written after breaking up with Ed

Poems which have been affixed to a wall
Poems which have been published electronically
Pissed off poems
Pissed on poems

1431

MEAN POEMS

Suck.

1430

WEDDING THANK YOU

Thank you for the wedding;
It always feels good to be in the presence
Of people who know what they're doing.

Thank you for getting married.
Now I can hurry up and get winsome
Whenever you cross my mind.

Thanks for the breadmaker,
The crystal decanter, the Nambe paperweight.
Thanks for the fireplace set,
The authentic rez blankets,
The crockery. You were the only ones
To pay attention to our registry!

Thank you for the institution of marriage
Which may even survive this critical time
So profligate in its encouragement
Of our high expectations.

Thank you for coming to the wedding.
I know it must have been difficult for you
To have all that fun. It meant a lot to us
That when you sang your favorite song,
It was in no way embarrassing. Just messing
With you! See you at the beach next summer,
If we can figure out how to pay for the honeymoon.

1429

ENTHUSIAST POEMS

We live in an era of magnificent suffixes.
I live in a 1998 Toyota Corolla. I love it.
The terrain of our nation is various
And I have hundreds of core samples in the trunk.
I'm glad you asked about the tattoo -- it is a nuthatch.
I have another, of an early locomotive's
Spark arrester; but more about that another time.

Do you have something you live for?

1428

POEMS WITH METAPHORS IN THEM

Go to the doctor.

1427

COMING BACK, OR LET'S GET BACK TOGETHER POEMS

Fort-da
Fort-da
Fort-da
Hike!

Insight
Insight
Insight. I am not afraid of you.
I am afraid of you.

I am feeling good
Therefore
I want to feel guilty now.

The category of mistakes
Is not abashed
To include human relations --
Some of them.

It also understands as part of its domain
Some spiteful demands
For separation. Go away,
Stay. Go away, stay. Perhaps this one
Experienced abandonment,
That one was loved all too well.

Fireworks -- you know
The explosion is coming,
You scan the sky for a white sheet.

1426

POEMS THAT TALK ABOUT ADVENTURE

It takes a nation of millions to hold us back.
When you wake up, we've already done more
Than you'll do all day. Without this cliff
Out my back door, I might get complacent.
Without this second or third or fourth cup
Of coffee I might notice what I'm feeling
Long enough to find an untraceable payphone.

Alligators in mirror may be nicer than they appear.
The math major ducks into a blind alley
And the creature he's summoned by completing
The impossible proof is momentarily fazed
By weekend shopping traffic. The gunboat drivers
Won't be ignoring crowds of little kids anymore.

Meanwhile is an excellent first word,
At least as good as Hwaet. Our lives
Give us the illusion of being dominated by talk
And stating a position can be good daily practice
But the body, oh lamented subject of late century art,
Has the last word in this world of physical force.

1425

MIDDLE SCHOOL POEMS

I've taught middle school --
A couple days a week for a few hours.
What I learned was
Unless you're there every day
You spend the first half hour of every class
Reminding them who you are exactly.

Sixth graders start out like third graders --
Shining light and not even eager to please.
As the year goes on you can see them getting socialized.
They dismantle one set of skills -- the kind
You as a teacher may wish to preserve --
And start working on another, semi-adult, mind.

Adolescence now extends into the early thirties.
Middle school now extends into your early thirties.
The breathtaking excitement of unchildish rudeness
Is a huge part of the shadow curriculum. There are
Constant and endless standardized tests to assure
That this most necessary skill is acquired.

I get very wordy remembering middle school.
Even more than high school, junior high
Encouraged sesquipedalianism. Spelling bees
Do not generally continue past the eighth grade.
Alcohol, tobacco, and firearms; cliques; suburbs,
Neither urban nor whoops! that's all we have time for.

1424

GUYS WEARING UGLY SHOES

Are otherwise indistinguishable from many other guys.

Really, check it out.
Same hair, same jokes, same
Matter-of-fact outlook
On major changes to society.

I want to say women tend not to select them
For the purposes of reproducing

But then it will seem as if this poem
Is addressing stereotypes of hetero- and homosexuality
Which it isn't. The ugliness of certain shoes
Transcends our gender categories.

Those fat square-toed ones
With the huge buckles, for instance.

Green ones.

Ones that resemble plastic elephants.

Shoes with windmills on the toe,
Not appliques but three-d
Mini golf style fully operational objects!
I haven't seen them.

What I see, mainly, are loafers,
Wing tips, and inconspicuous black "dress" shoes.

Real ugliness is rare
And often nearly indistinguishable from beauty.

1423

SEPTEMBER POEMS

Gray skies and green grass
And gather the sunspots

Purchase orders stacked neatly
And uniforms in triplicate

Flood warnings and the overlap
Of professional sports

Of such things
Are September poems made.

1422

PIANOS AND FRIENDSHIP

They come looking
For pianos and friendship
And they leave
With a herd of wild reindeer
And the love of the lord
On their lips.

1421

RELAXING POEMS

Gimme a mojito.
Take from me
These wingtips
And lay hot terry
Around my face.
Prepare the couch
On which I'll
Recline for supper.
Read me some
Relaxing poems.

That's right, baby.

1420

LOVE POEMS ON SAYING SORRY TO YOUR BOYFRIEND AFTER AN ARGUMENT

It can't get worse it can only get better
Is something I heard from a few cubicles down.

What are the odds you'll forget everything I said?
You know how I feel about risk and reward,

How my bet on you is so big
Sometimes it excites me

Past the point I'm trying to make.
I regret straying from my prepared and helpful remarks

Out over there to where I hurt you.
I wish there were love poems that would say

Exactly what greeting cards used to be for
Except I don't want to pay for the embossed card stock

And colored envelope -- money is a big subject
Of fights, though we know it's not the real subject.

The real subject is that I care about you
And have googled for this title

In order to share with you in the most economical manner
The content my remorseful heart keeps pumping this a.m.

1419

WHAT HAPPENED TO PROMETHEUS?

File it under "no good deed goes etc."
Incidentally, my family motto.

What is unknown in this case
Are the geological properties of the rock.

The liver, you say.
Bring fire, be destroyed by firewater?

The gods could have just made it rain
Until the sparks were cold,

But spite sells soap
Even in Attic Greek.

1418

FOG POEMS

Call out for foghorn poems.
From up on Russian Hill

You can see the fog poems coming.
Fog.

Fog.
Fog.

Fog is misunderstood --
It isn't mysterious

Or an underachiever.
Maybe best not to drive

While writing a poem,
Whether or not it's foggy out.

1417

POEMS DESCRIBING SOMEONE

May replace passport photos.
Often the subject is at rest,
Isolated from a group, or otherwise
Imagined as an individual
More than the sum of a series of quirks
("Reality effects")

The poems generally are forced
To jettison run-of-the-mill data

The ideal such description
Will give you a sense
Of how someone's eyes flash
When they're walking and talking

Or how the lip of the person in question
Curls in response to embarrassment
And how the curl differs from the one
That comes with feelings of pleasure

Whether the person would make a good elected official

A poem describing someone
Ought to make clear whether it's possible to love them

1416

PRE-K POEMS

My child is going to school
He or she isn't going to kindergarten yet

He or she plays happily
On the swing set

She or he's feeling great and undefined
Walking around his or her mind
Which no one tries to bind

My child is going to school
For several hours at a time

He or she is learning to be cool
"Dad, please stop rhyming"

Soon little one we will fill out the forms
And get you the tests
And take you to interviews
And wait for the news

Congratulations! It's a life
"Dad, don't be corny"

"I liked school today"
"Let's get an ice cream"
"I don't want to take the subway!"

1415

THUG LOVE POEMS

Somebody took my rhymes
And gave them to the weatherman
He didn't know how to use his notebook
So they brought him some new headgear to wear
Lying down on the curb in front of his dentist's office

Winter is coming
And after that some more winter
You're going to need something warm around you
When I touch your calf with my cold foot

I don't want to get angry with you again
Don't put my beats back on the rack
Or send my suits to the cleaners again
I've got to check them first, I've got routines and rules
Rituals and methods, I'm not OCD I'm scientific

They say love is a big word so what I'm all about big
You say I said it to so many women I'm all about pig
You know before you I said love wasn't happening
And now you know I see the love you keep

1414

The robot moves across the car;
The car is steadily cleaner.
I sit and watch it from the bar
And notice I've grown meaner.

The motorcycle rally takes up the mind
I thought I'd given to pineapple juice.

Aim a beam at a wobbling can
For disco effects on the cheap;
I saw your senator the other day
And she asked why you never write.

1413

What here isn't big on denial?
Only the distance.

1412

Neither the older brother
Nor the little girl can keep
From crying as they approach
The rain-making umbrella.

1411

What here isn't best in its class?
Only the distance.

1410

THE ESS THAT GOES UP THREE TIMES

From the middle of the second
He stretches his foot
Out to the platform at one end
Of the jouncing bridge.

1409

What here isn't banana-free?
Only the distance.

1408

AFTERNOON

And before hunger,
The sun feels
Like blowing itself up
Even more than usual.
So, can we become
Other animals now?
I want to be hostage
No more to shadows
And follow
The tilt of earth.
We are free a while
To do nothing at all,
Our best crowding,
Rummage and spill.

1407

What here isn't buttered?
Only the distance.

1406

SPEEDBOATS, HELICOPTERS & SINGLE ENGINE PLANES

The children are hard at work.
Moving quantities of sand, sending trucks
Down slick spiral slides, or simply
Being stunned by a splash of water
From behind. They're growing, yes,
But more than that they are occupying
This prime real estate. Trying to help them
Can take up all your reason and turn
Your idea of time into a Ferris wheel by the river.
Or not. More to the point,
A group -- six or seven toddlers
Push slide and scoop sand around on a table
And it's futile to distract them
From this work which shares its relation to purpose with art.

1405

What here isn't bulletproof?
Only the distance.

1404

Just paint what you feel. What
May be the only word in that
Worth saving. Now and free
Go in the same heap. A beer makes
The song go round. The police
Smoke cigars alongside their bikes.
I'm remembering the songs you want:
Wanted Dead or Alive is one --
And you have no Prince.

1403

This riot (all the alternate futures
Strike the disinterested observer
As equally luckless) better not
Talk my attention from what

Begins like a frog, a swimmer
Pushing legs out from inside
And getting to work hopping on
What stays -- lilies, logs,

A carton of milk -- blood and ink
On my fingertips, objects at hand
Start taking the air like it's math
Or physics and not psychology I need

As homework, not standing apart
But climbing down and getting on the phone.

1402

At least I'm not watching
Some retarded television program.
Think of a train full of people.
Now let them get on home.

Some performances are baseball games,
Pinball games, the running
As hard as I can and
Never for me. A slice of lime.

If the big question is "what for"
Then the big if is
How much love allows you
To go stand in the sun?

1401

The performance isn't life;
Art asks us to invade
Hard candy, green trees in rain seen
Through the emergency exit door.

I get a faraway look --
Thank goodness I have feelings
A reciprocal pride in
Mud for tea.

Soundtrack, understanding you
In the thousands makes a space.
We have this jumping.
It is a sacred space for being alive.

1400

Toward the reset button the dream
Urges me to watch some tv. Kiss me,
She says. But you're dating my --
Carbon, she interrupts. I don't get it

But I know what she means and she
Knows where I live and suddenly
Thousands of motorcycles are going by.
It's important to feel love for...

Once, she remarks. I feel the page
Open underneath me and suddenly
I am in a nightclub in the afternoon
And the liquor distributor is here

Hoping to speak with me about this
Irregularity in the payment schedule.

1399

As long as the ghost understands
When you have to be home for dinner
I don't care how many hundreds of times
You replay your three-minute miracle.

I'm coming around to all your ideas,
So don't vanish on me now!
The bakery still sounds like a washing machine,
I still cherish all the cul de sacs

I've felt with some honor to resemble
Myself as a Viking settler or Irish setter might
Observe me, if either were given to pensive
Deliberations on the haze of a chooser.

1398

WHAT I NEVER MENTION, WHAT I NEED NEVER MENTION,
WHAT I NEED I NEVER MENTION

A blast of quiet comes up from the light
And the knowledge that this changes nothing
Means everything ot me, fills me with wild noise
I am aching to distribute to the whole hive.

This is a kind of talking to myself
That hurts less than telling myself what to do.

The sleeping in the other room
Makes me cry for once,
And the wish is vivid on my pericardium.
I could tell you but that would spoil it.

1397

THRASHING AROUND BLINDLY

They say this is the interesting part,
But they're saying it from over there
On what must be the sidelines
So I keep their voices at a steady distance
And run as hard as I can, my legs
Going out behind my, my breathing

Making me think -- that's not what it does.
My lungs are down here, my brain
God knows where... all I know is
I'm not complaining to be on my feet
I'm just hoping to stay awake until light
Makes it clear to everyone where we all are.

1396

The star-room patience is fighting a venue,
Wit cracking his chemical torch where
No school laughter is mandated. What doubt
You carry around down there, hombre!

1395

What he invented is an ambiguous machine.
The warehouse has thousands of them
In unlabelled crates. One such device
Apparently keeps the space cool in August;
It is the only warehouse people rush to
In summer; you can see the lines of forklifts
From 30,000 feet. The resentment competition
Shows no signs of stalling, by the way,
So if you come to town, protect your mood.

1394

FOR MY OWN GOOD

Next time we'll go
Where they bless the motorcycles,
Just relaxing in the shade
To get back at all this beauty.

I'm coming to join the crowd
Who hear Hamlet not about to fall
Sideways on his dagger, but rather
As one freaked out by his own power.

Get back, lean back, baby's got
To know the difference between the rights
Of man and the side of a barn.
Next time I'll let you shuffle.

1393

AMBER ALERT

Having a child changes you. For example,
A salmon's face extends forward, a giant underbite
Emerging, and then there's the matter
Hanging off their sides. I am proud to be
An American. Also, I'm proud to be a Protestant,
And wasn't whiteness a smart choice.

When people complain to me about Spielberg's manipulative
And frequent cutaways to children in danger --
People being me -- I remind them that sarcasm
(Which does so well in the funnies) plays on television
As arrogance. The point is to put a big-ass
Unavoidable conflict, the kind metaphors with tools

Such as hammer, wrench, or fire in them are usually used
To illustrate how they turn us into material,
Materiel, to put this conflict in front of an audience
And present them with options. Suddenly I was able
To notice that what attracted me most was to know
When I actually needed to take care of someone.

1392

THE STORYTELLER WINERY

When I think of the places I have not gone --
The Ham Museum, Cathedral Beach, Attica...

1391

PROBLEMS

As you may know, to loom is
To come into view hazily, as through a fog.

You may also be aware that dust from the Sahel
Fertilizes the Amazon basin.

Pundits have done a remarkable job, really,
Of conveying the news that the news
Is preoccupied with discussions of strategy
And the dissemination of tactically placed
Press releases, and not with the independent
Remit of relevant change.

Wanted posters are less prominent in post offices
Than computer-enhanced guesses
Of how missing children may have aged.

The oceans are taking on huge quantities of carbon.

Inertia: still number one with a bullet.

Increased feelings of powerlessness don't halt
Pharma sector's slide.

A hero emerges from the fog, speaking
The language of the fog.

1390

MASKING TAPE

When preparing to paint the walls a shade
Contrasting with your moulding, apply a strip
Of blue painter's tape along the edge
You do not want to change.

You do not want to change.
You want to remain eternally youthful,
At the maximum of both your power and the wisdom
To manage it. And that's where ever-useful
Masking tape comes to your aid.

Masking tape comes to your aid
As the spray trucks pass through the neighborhood.
Affix the protective polyvinylchloride sheeting
To every window. Keep them covered for the duration.

From the outside, the effect is pretty and mysterious.
It's raining. I'm off to the doctor's. Don't go near
The fridge, or, well, you'll see.

1389

BRING THE DOCUMENTATION ON THE SPECIFIED DATE

Randomly turning the radio on and off
Will generally drive everyone from the room.
Ghosts enjoy it, though. Bring the documentation
On the specified date.

Listen -- can you hear the birds
All fleeing at once?
That unjaylike sound cometh clearly
From a jay. Bring the documentation on
The specified date.

The footsteps on the corridor's carpet
Belong to one biting her lip. Ah, to have
Superpowers! a curse we moderns deplore.
Bring the documentation on the specified date.

1388

EVITAGEN

I for one don't miss the days of acrostics.

Snow gave you another chance, where's your sense of well-being?

The importance of this little-known grape can be estimated.

I'm moshing with the pre-K set.

1387

IN THE MIDDLE OF THINGS

Begging for a soda biscuit.
When he came through the hallway, tie undone.
She relaxed.
"Do you think so, O'Reilly?"
And what about regret, anyway.
That was exactly the problem with her: too much joy,
Or maybe too much Too Much Joy.

Gaul is divided into three parts.
Attaboy.

What's really difficult is to tell
The story not in a paragraph or a sentence,
But to summarize it in exactly as many words
As the story itself.

He was good for a laugh like that.
We met him at the far end of the bar.

It was raining, but it
Was raining. In a previous life
He'd been an inventor
Of useless and frequently dangerous objects.

Go ahead, describe the sexual tension.
The shoes were covered with snails.

As it happens, subordinate clauses
Are not your friend. It was a mark of praise
For him to say: "His happiness
Is free of ickiness." The glamor
Appeared to be color-coded. Time
Dragged its nails along his back.

Now when we gather under the Japanese maple
We cover ourselves with glowworms in advance.

1386

Microphone. Invaluable
Voluble low blow. Taped up
Bake McBride
Fanny pack. Ideas are problems.

Once upon a time, the arrival of
Each new character prompted a musical number
In a distinct genre.

Now, the national debt clock
Has crashed to the ground
Along with the karaoke bar
And most of the Henry Miller Theatre.

Hagstrom's
Transposed
Its frontage
And depth.

You could pay a call on your benefits officer
Or stand on line at Town Hall,

Depressed to the point of fearing the sentence.
Hey! look me over. Download now.

1385

FLYING OVER THE RIVER

The currents. I drove along with my scissors.
Mustard-colored luggage, she could cook --

This was the city I'd heard so much
Underground. The fire appeared to be

Fine. How are you doing? At oblique
Angles, oblongs recycle the everybody

At night with the succulents. Be polite
To travel across the network massage

They have reason to believe it's code. I'm not.
I follow it by instruments and life doesn't

Inherited it. Maybe later we could
Speaking with one voice about urgent matters.

1384

PARTY NEXT DOOR

Great. High long laughter (stoned?)
The bass shocks the wool
On the shelf. This much gothic
Sculpture to process by the end
Of the pay period. The politicians
In office are unnervingly bulky.
No good catching up on phone calls.
In half an hour I'll sue for peace,
Right after I finish drawing gnomes.

1383

THE ULTIMATE TEAM CHART

Given how much of time pearls.
Now, take a walk from the subway
To your last place of residence.
The changes to the roster of local retail.
A couple you always noticed
With a new dog, facial scars.
The thick light of a humid day,
Swelling of the river. Love the cars
Comparing subwoofers. I love
The givens of a neighborhood,
The opportunities (declined) to become jaded.
My art is what's eating your shoes.

1382

THE CASE OF THE HALF SLIP AND HEELS

If you are not living in the same predicament
I hope you are counting the sunbeans emanating
From the bunting. Each one's a soul, so to speak,
Absorbed in its radiant health and youth. Office space
Is going cheap in my building. I guess what
I'm saying is get a room. This afternoon
Went by like I was engrossed in a manual task.
I was prepared to believe they were living a lie
Or two, but when I saw the teeming larvae, I was shocked.
This is often known as clearing the throat.
Are you feeling so dear to me I can't speak?
Maybe you've found the unexpected approach,
The northwest passage, as it were. A phrase
Using a familiar word in its secondary sense.
Spirit cleanser. My clumsier self throbs
When I fail to open the coconut. The words
Come very easily, photographs prompt
A recall of that year's model of memory
(Childrens' heads get stuck in it). You come
To the door in your house coat and I
Find my sea legs in time.

1381

If you're going to make a collage,
Get some pretty trimmings, boy.

Get some pretty trimmings
If you're going to make a collage.

If you're going to juxtapose to striking effect,
Think chiaroscuro, go to extremes.

Think chiaroscuro, go to extremes
If you want to get through using juxtaposition.

If you're going to splice the mundane and the crazed
Into one seams-showing throbbing beast,
Let me know when you're done.

If what you're saying could as well be spoken on tv,
Good for you. It's very exciting to talk to the camera.

1380

He pushed the curtain aside and stepped forward
To the edge of the stage. "Ladies and..." Here
He paused a moment. "Gentlemen." He seemed
To be catching his breath, holding back tears,
In any case you'd call it dramatic.

1379

THE ERA OF REDUCED EXPECTATIONS

Who created subjectivity.
What is the message the coalition is polishing.
How do we speak of all this silence.
What is the difference between discontinuity and distraction.
How do you know your point has been made.
When do you know the speaker is lying.
Who gets stuff done.
How tight are you feeling it.
When does the hostility leak out.
What will you do to disarm appeals to your individual case.
How does it feel to say something you believe.
When do you notice opinions being minimized.
Who uses the term "crazy."

1378

Block the wet cat feeding pace, it's a setup
I smile darkly to repay. Now on the farm
Mittens cover speaking hands and sunlight
Places itself above every demand.
Blessed ultraviolet radiation!
The compact our sod keeps by falling sideways
I honor out of boredom. This drunk earth
Will as likely go by a wound from a rock
As in some autoerotic property claim.

1377

BLASTS OF COOL AIR

I could never shop there
But I loved to walk by the door.

1376

I watched the administrator stretch a text
Until I got the hang of the process. There was music
And it was expensive, but you gotta eat, right?
When I talk to you I get newspaper engravings feelings.

I myself love the climate of New York.
The fact is you work at the job until it works you,
Then you sleepwalk by me to where my typing
Won't aggravate your rheumatism.

The experience here is of refreshing an old machine.
It makes a kind of barley candy not available for years,
Tincture of lemongrass, hint of grapefruit. End stop.
I kept my hands on the telegraph table

Until I understood the international distress signal.
It was a clear, cold night, and very exciting.

1375

What do you say we go get some steaks.
The cops are percolating out there, is it hot?
It's covered with television, is what.
Can't find my car. Somebody has airmailed
A sombrero to me in error, what a guy.

He was the kind of kid you could call an urchin.
A little red around the edges, and mortally
Wild to get love out of you. I liked being his neighbor
Plenty, just for the crowd he'd attract.
Actually, he was a terrible neighbor.

Now we watch the learning class teach itself
A few choice dance steps. I'm writing a concerto
For four-wheel drive, but I'm leaving
The cadenza to someone with combat experience.

1374

UP FROM THE GROUND

On the beach the man dipped in lycra keeps his kite
At quite an altitude. It pulls him across the surface
Of the afternoon until we're tired of watching him
And possibly after. Do anything long enough and
They study the films from Monday to Thursday.

That kind of statement really impressed me
When I was twelve, and twelve is the age I revert to
On vacation, meaning I have been aware of
My capacity for sadness for two thirds of my life.

Of course I like fishing and kites -- you throw lines
Until you feel something pull back at you. It must
Be the same for the grass when it grows. It must.

1373

I don't want to shoot you.
I want to be your parents.

*

Oh no, not again!
Give me some more shots.
That's okay, son.
I'll go to... [transcript trails off]

*

I'll chop you up into food!
And then you'll take me!
All right, stay on the stairs.
Stay in the sand.

*

Where are the nerds.
Peh, peh, peh, peh, peh.

*

Look at him, he owns that!
In the shade of a turtle.

1372

THEY WOULDN'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT MY LIFE

Anger at slow e-mailers
Floor covered with newspapers, chairs stacked high with folders
Long slow commute with the earbuds in
"Roll with it, flow with it, f*** around and just roll biscuits"
Constantly shutting down in the middle of conversation
But coming on back with a warm smile

I'm just singing here at my desk in the early noise
Of bags being rummaged through in the kitchen by who knows what
(Awake son)
Long periods of staring
That's my national anthem you're sampling

1371

GOVERNMENT DEE

I'm ok with the machine.
It brings me up to the surface
When I love you. The sides
Of the here and now shake
To be quiet about it, but

I'm ok with the precedent.
Now and then, I'll kick a button
And some rust will show.
The point is to speak to make
Time wonder whether

I'm ok with the expense.
I am. I look at the boulevard
Differently when you're
Not here yet. Governments
Change all the time. Come home.

1370

THINGS THAT BUMP OUT

Yoga mat
Saran Saran
Window tinting
Spandex

Mayonnaise

1369

MAKING IT UP TO THE LEGEND OF BASEBALL

I've neglected you, o American pastime
And you, too, concept of personal duty, have I allowed to languish
In a perpetual pre-dawn glow of information consumerism.
Feeders of birds on the street,
Functional architecture people,
Middle school students in the midwest and doctors in California,
Non-denominational (anti-demonization) prayer groups,
Indie rockers,
Practically everyone who can carry the suffix -enthusiast
Without cracking down the middle under its weight.
Language poets, New formalists, and especially you reviewers
Of poetry collections who bravely continue to alert the public
To the existence of language poets and new formalists
Neither of which camp your books under review have ever attended,
You, it would seem, are among the few I have not shortchanged
When budgeting my focused, laserlike attention. In the future,
Be prepared to go without quite so many of my scalding ripostes,
Which I am now reserving for my potential enemies
Among watchers of The O.C., Prius drivers,
The 52 million purchasers of sexual devices,
And editors of popular web sites. Hate is hardly the opposite of love.
From here to 44th Street I have declared a zone
Of profound, generous excitement for the game Abner Doubleday
Adapted to our native needs. We shall be as a people (I mean myself)
Moved deeply by the creators of new insight-unveiling statistics,
Letting go of Avg, HR, RBI so that we may see the patterns in the grass anew,
Taste the cotton candy afresh. You will never have seen
The likes of this devotion.